A day after some of the East’s top dirt fillies and mares get together at Saratoga Race Course in the Personal Ensign Stakes, the West Coast’s leading ladies will tangle Sunday in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar.
There’s something different about this year’s Personal Ensign Stakes, but, then again, there isn’t. Traditionally the 1 1/8-mile stakes for older fillies and mares has been contested on the final August weekend of the Saratoga meet.
In becoming one of the early favorites for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, Honor A. P. has prepped in short fields in California this year — circumstances that won’t change when he competes in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes Saturday at Del Mar.
Saturday’s $750,000, Grade 1 Whitney Stakes is an annual highlight of Saratoga Race Course’s summer meet and a race that has major importance on the road to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in the fall.
Each week a panel of media members, horseplayers, and Breeders’ Cup World Championships officials release a poll tabulating their votes on the nation's top contenders for the 2020 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic.
